At first glance, you should choose anyone from the quartet of Belgium – Hungary – Serbia – Scotland, but not Domenico Tedesco’s team, because the “red devils” are unconditionally among the elite of world football.
However, now the stars have aligned in such a way that the head coach of the national team of Ukraine has no reason to complain about the draw.
In general, there are no excuses.
And all because at the moment the Belgian national team has lost all its power and aesthetics. One name remains from the team that recently reached the semifinals of the World Cup.
Change is the main scourge of the current Belgian national team. With the departure of Eden Hazard, an entire era has passed. And you have to come to terms with that.
However, this past era could have passed less unnoticed, less resonantly, if the national federation had made the right choice for the position of head coach of the national team.
But the choice of leagues for Domenico Tedesco – a young coach, but with a very tarnished reputation. The former coach of Moscow “Spartak” failed to reach his new level.
Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine. Domenico Tedesco Moreover, under his leadership, the Belgian national team dropped below second place in the Nations League for the first time in its history. In 2021, Belgium fought to win this tournament, in 2025 they will fight to stay in Division A.
Somehow, very quickly, although not very noticeably, the Belgium national team slipped to the inconspicuous niche of skillful, but faceless teams. Tedesco tried to find a way out of the situation, but the more he tried to find that way out, the further he got away from that way out.
A textbook example of the rejection of the current coach of the “red devils” is the story of Thibaut Courtois – currently the former goalkeeper of the Belgian national team. The goalkeeper of “Real” allegedly took offense at the fact that Tedesco, after the departure of Hazard Sr., gave the captain’s armband not to him, but to Lukaku.
In my opinion, this whole story is not worth an egg. It seems to me that a compromise could be found. But Courtois did not try to find him. And why look for it, this compromise, with a no-name coach?
Thibaut perfectly understood that now with his national team he can lose more than he can gain. The fact that the “devils” are going downhill was already visible at Euro-2020. There was to be only the bottom.
And it was, this bottom. With Courtois, it would also certainly be. But the cunning Thibault decided to leave. Watch from the side.
From the outside, watching the withering of one of the best national teams in the world turned out to be a very thankless thing. And uninteresting.
In fact, it turned out that it was not possible to replace Courtois and Hazard Tedesco. Moreover, having abandoned veterans Witsel, Carrasco and Vertonghen, the new coach of the Belgians could not find an equal replacement for them.
How could he not replace the injured De Bruyne and Tom.
Without these aforementioned seven footballers, the Belgian national team has become such an extraordinary team.
We could judge its mediocrity from Euro 2024, where the Red Devils were drawn into the same group as the Ukrainian national team.
Belgium was the “mother” team in our quartet for the Euro, but did not confirm its status at all.
In the last round of the group tournament, the Belgian national team played to a scoreless draw with the Ukrainian national team. Then it seemed that our opponent was playing strictly according to the result. But in fact it turned out that he plays as well as he can.
The first round of the EC-2024 playoffs turned out to be the last for the Belgians: they lost 0:1 to the French national team.
And that defeat against the “Musketeers” cannot be considered a mistake or a coincidence, because later the trend was confirmed. Belgium and France met in the same group of the League of Nations, and Tedesco’s men lost both matches – 0:2 and 1:2.
The relationship of the “red devils” with another cool team in the group – with Italy – was not the best: a 2:2 draw and a 0:1 defeat.
So it turned out that the Belgians in their group fought exclusively for the preservation of the elite registration, and not for the entry into the playoffs.
The team managed to defend the third place in the group in the fight against Israel. But only thanks to the better difference of goals scored and conceded in personal meetings – 3:1 and 0:1.
That’s how, from the hegemon of continental football, the Belgian national team moved to the status of ordinary teams.
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And this wind of change caught not only the inconvenient and visionary Courtois, against whom Tedesco began to fence the garden, but also Lukaku, for whose sake the new coach of the Belgians began to fence this garden.
The newly-emerged captain of the Belgian national team played only one match in the recently concluded Nations League tournament – a lost home match against Italy. Romelu asked Tedesco not to call him to the national team – under the guise of better preparation for meetings at the club level.
Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine. Romelu Lukaku And that’s how, not by washing, but by skating, the Belgian national team ended up where it ended up. That is, it turned out to be balancing on the border between the elite and the rest.
Undoubtedly, the “red devils” even in this – disassembled and raw form – remain a serious opponent for any opponent. However, in my opinion, now, which is the end of March next year, is the best time to cross paths with Tedesco’s team.
It is unlikely that this team will become stronger in these few months.
It won’t happen. Even if De Bruyne recovers from his injuries, this team’s best days are behind them. And the KGB has already announced his retirement from the national team. There are no equivalent replacements for the departed leaders. And it won’t be. Belgian football is not so prolific as to produce a golden generation every year.
The current generation of the Belgian national team is not even aiming for silver. Well, except for pewter.
But even that is not the point. After all, again, everything is known comparatively. Compared to the national team of Belgium, the national team of Ukraine still remains an outsider, because despite the obvious problems of the “devils”, our problems are even more obvious. Even more revealing.
And this is precisely where our team has a chance. We have nothing to lose. We would certainly have something to lose in matches against Hungary or Serbia. In case of defeat. And now – no one, not even me, will dare to throw stones in our garden, if in the end we do not defeat this opponent. Because this opponent, despite all his pains, remains a level higher than the Rebrov national team.
And if so, in the upcoming matches against the Belgians, we can only buy.
Experience – as a minimum.
But I would very much like our main team of the country to acquire positive emotions along with experience.
Serhii Rebrov is a playoff master. Let him prove that he is a master.
Source: sport.ua